Managing user permissions in relation to system events occurring in a  database system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for managing user permissions in relation to system events occurring in a database system. In some implementations, a server can listen for system events. Based on at least one system event criterion, a system event can be determined to occur. A user can be identified as matching a user criterion. A permission set can be identified as matching a permission criterion. Based on a permission set, a permission may be added, updated, or removed from a user.

PRIORITY DATA

This patent document claims priority to co-pending and commonly assignedU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/040,611, titled “Time-BasedUser Permissioning”, by John Arlan Brock, filed on Aug. 22, 2014(Attorney Docket No. 1200.1465PROV), which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to user permissions in thecontext of database systems. More specifically, this patent documentdiscloses techniques for managing user permissions in relation to systemevents occurring in a database system.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, applications, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, services can be provided by one or more serversaccessible over the Internet rather than installing software locally onin-house computer systems. As such, users having a variety of roles caninteract with cloud computing services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a database system 100 formanaging user permissions based on system events, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of an example of a method 200 for managingpermissions of users to access and interact with data objects in adatabase system, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a user interface 300 in the form of agraphical user interface (GUI) as displayed on a computing device forselecting an event type, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a user interface 400 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for selecting a user type, in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a user interface 500 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for selecting profiles or permissionsets, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 6 shows a permission monitoring window 600 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for reviewing automated permissioningjobs, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 7 shows an example of events being processed to manage permissionsof users, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 8A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 8B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 8A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 9A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 9B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia according to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Some of the disclosed implementations of systems, apparatus, methods andcomputer program products are configured for managing user permissionsbased on system events occurring in a database system. For example, inresponse to the occurrence of a system event, a server may add and/orremove permissions defining levels of access for a user of a computingplatform implemented using the database system.

By way of example, in a conventional enterprise computing systemincorporating a customer relationship management (CRM) database, thereis often a significant number of users interacting with data objectssuch as CRM records (accounts, leads, opportunities, contracts,contacts, etc.) stored in the CRM database. User access to individualdata objects or categories of such data objects can be controlledthrough permissions. For example, one permission may allow a user toview accounts in the CRM database. However, the same user may lackanother permission required for editing accounts. In conventionalscenarios, when it is desirable to update a user's permissions toprovide edit privileges, a system administrator manually adds one ormore appropriate permissions.

In modern databases and other computing environments, users are oftenassigned numerous permissions that grant different levels of access tovarious data objects. To illustrate, one user may have a permission toedit and view knowledge articles or another type of document or filestored in a database system, while another user may only have apermission to view knowledge articles. Manually adding or removingpermissions by a system administrator often leads to human error such asremoving the wrong permission for a group of users, adding a permissionon the wrong day, forgetting to remove a permission, etc. Such humanerror often leads to additional costs and wasted time in correcting themistake, and human error can introduce security threats to an enterprisesystem.

By way of illustration, Rainbow Readers is a large book publisher usingan enterprise system integrated with CRM databases to manage the salesand distribution of their large catalog of books. Each employee atRainbow Readers has a user profile storing or linked with permissionsdefining the employee's access to various database records, files, andother resources maintained by the enterprise system. Through userpermissions, the enterprise system controls the ability of RainbowReaders employees to view and/or make changes to resources in theenterprise system. In some situations, an employee's ability to view ormake changes to a certain file or type of file may depend on theemployee's job function. For instance, a Rainbow Readers sales managermay have the ability to create, view and edit a new sales account, whilea sales representative may only be able to view the sales account.

Tammy, Abraham, and Xiu are accountants employed by Rainbow Readers.Ordinarily, accountants at Rainbow Readers lack the permission to editsales reports stored as documents in a database of the Rainbow Readersenterprise system. However, it is one month before Rainbow Readers' taxfiling is due. Each year, in order to prepare the tax filing, theaccountants at Rainbow Readers are temporarily granted permissions tomake changes to sales reports. At 11:59 pm on March 14^(th), Ron, anoff-site system administrator at Rainbow Readers manually adds an editpermission to each accountant's user profile. Over the next four weeks,the accountants prepare and complete the tax filing. At 12:01 am onApril 16^(th), Ron attempts to remove the temporary permissions for theaccountants. Unfortunately, Ron, tired from a long day of work,mistakenly removes all permissions from every user profile in theenterprise system. Unaware of his mistake, Ron falls asleep. The nextmorning, all employees at Rainbow Readers are unable to access and workwith resources of the enterprise system because of Ron's mistake. Theproblem remains unresolved until Ron wakes up in the afternoon,resulting in a company-wide shut down for half of the day andsubstantial financial loss to Rainbow Readers.

Some of the disclosed techniques can be implemented to automaticallymanage users' permissions according to certain system events or types ofsystem events occurring in an enterprise system or other computingenvironment. By way of example, a server of an enterprise system canrecognize that a system event occurred at an identifiable date and time.In response to recognizing the system event or the type of system event,a first set of criteria can be applied to identify users relevant to thesystem event, and a second set of criteria can be applied to identifyrelevant permissions. The identified permissions may then be added orremoved based on the system event and the determinations based onapplication of the sets of criteria. Returning to the example above, acalendared system event could be automatically scheduled between March14^(th) and April 16th of each year were, on March 14^(th), humanresources (HR) records are searched to identify the current roster ofaccountants, the tax documents and records relevant to preparing a taxfiling, and the appropriate permissions to provide the identifiedaccountants with edit privileges for those tax documents and records.Any added permissions could be tracked and automatically removed fromthe identified accountants' permissions on April 16^(th).

In another scenario, after recently being fired from Rainbow Readers, adisgruntled employee attempts to export all customer accounts in orderto sell the information to a competing book publisher. Because there isno mechanism in conventional systems to stop the employee, RainbowReaders might not be able to prevent and might not even discover thattheir sensitive information had been stolen. However, implementing someof the disclosed techniques, a system event causing removal of employeepermissions can be immediately triggered or scheduled in response to thefiring of an employee or in response to an employee exceeding on accountexport limitation. For example, a system event could be in the form of auser's HR file being updated to show his or her status as being“terminated”, or a system event could be in the form of a user requestto export more than 1000 accounts.

These and other implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that arespecially configured to store program instructions, such as read-onlymemory (“ROM”) devices and random access memory (“RAM”) devices. Theseand other features of the disclosed implementations will be described inmore detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

In some but not all implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus,systems, and computer-readable storage media may be configured ordesigned for use in a multi-tenant database environment.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of a database system maybe shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows of data such asfeed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. The term“query plan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about a given user of the database system. The datacan include general information, such as name, title, phone number, aphoto, a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing whatthe user is currently doing. As mentioned below, the data can includemessages created by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, auser is typically associated with a particular tenant. For example, auser could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of thedatabase system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a user (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor, distributor, etc.)of the user, and can include information describing an entire company,subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As another example, a recordcan be a project that the user is working on, such as an opportunity(e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or a project that theuser is trying to get. In one implementation of a multi-tenant databasesystem, each record for the tenants has a unique identifier stored in acommon table. A record has data fields that are defined by the structureof the object (e.g., fields of certain data types and purposes). Arecord can also have custom fields defined by a user. A field can beanother record or include links thereto, thereby providing aparent-child relationship between the records.

Permission sets can be used in conjunction with some computing systems.For instance, the assignments of users and permission sets may be storedin one or more databases of an on-demand database service environment.Thus, users may receive permission to access certain resources. Apermission server in a database system can store criteria data regardingthe types of users and permission sets to assign to each other. Forexample, a computing device can provide to the server data indicating anattribute of a user (e.g., geographic location, industry, role, level ofexperience, etc.) and particular permissions to be assigned to the usersfitting the attributes. Permission sets meeting the criteria may beselected and assigned to the users. Moreover, permissions may appear inmultiple permission sets. In this way, the users can gain access to thecomponents of a system.

In some on-demand database service environments, an ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) is configured to expose a collection ofpermissions and their assignments to users through appropriatenetwork-based services and architectures, for instance, using SimpleObject Access Protocol (SOAP) Web Service and Representational StateTransfer (REST) APIs.

In some implementations, a permission set may be presented to anadministrator as a container of permissions. However, each permissioncan reside in a separate API object exposed in a shared API that has achild-parent relationship with the same permission set object. Thisallows a given permission set to scale to millions of permissions for auser while allowing a developer to take advantage of joins across theAPI objects to query, insert, update, and delete any permission acrossthe millions of possible choices. This makes the API highly scalable,reliable, and efficient for developers to use.

Permission sets have licensing implications, because the specificpermissions granted to a user may be limited by the user's license. Forexample, an employee's user license may not permit the employee toaccess manager data objects. Consequently, the employee user should notbe assigned a permission set that includes permission to access managerdata objects. One way to ensure that permission sets are not assigned tousers in a way that violates their user licenses is to associate everypermission set that is created with a user license, and to validate uponcreation of the permission set that none of the permissions in thepermission set violate the user license associated with the permissionset. However, in situations where an administrator wishes to grant asingle permission to multiple users with different user licenses, thissystem may require an administrator to create multiple permission setshaving the same single permission in order to grant that permission tomultiple users with different user licenses. As an example, if there arefive different user license types, and an administrator wishes to assignan “API Enabled” permission to all users, the administrator would needto create five permission sets, each containing only the “API Enabled”permission, and each corresponding with one of the five different userlicenses. The implementations described herein reduce thisadministrative overhead by creating only one “API Enabled” permissionset, which may be assigned to users having different user license type.

As another example, an independent software vendor wishes to publish acustom application consisting of custom objects, fields, classes, andpages, to be accessed by all users of an organization in a multitenantdatabase environment. The vendor may wish to create permission sets thatgrant access to the custom objects, fields, classes, and pages of thecustom application to all users. The implementations described hereinallow the vendor to create a single permission set that may be assignedto any license type to grant access to the vendor's application, makingit easier for independent software vendors to install permissions withtheir custom applications, rather than creating one permission set foreach license that may be available in an organization.

In some implementations described herein, a permission set may becreated by an administrator without being associated with a userlicense. Validation of the permission set may not occur until thepermission set is assigned to a user, at which point the serveridentifies the user license associated with the user and determineswhether the permission set being assigned to the user violates the userlicense associated with the user. For example, a single “API Enabled”permission set may be created. This permission set may then be assignedto users of all license types, because all of the license types allowthe “API Enabled” permission to be assigned to the users. This obviatesthe need to create an “API Enabled” permission set for each user licensetype.

In some implementations, when a permission set is modified to includeadditional permissions, the modification may be validated by the server,because the additional permissions may violate a user license of a userto whom the permission set is assigned. When the server receives arequest to add one or more permissions to a permission set, the serveridentifies the users to whom the permission set is currently assigned,identifies the user licenses associated with those users, and thendetermines whether the additional permissions will violate any of theuser licenses.

In addition to user licenses, other constraints may be implemented todetermine what permissions a user may possess. User constraints may takethe form of any logical grouping of metadata that has access controls.For example, other user constraint forms may include an onlinecommunity, an application, a line of business, or an independentsoftware vendor application. Having these flexible user constraintsallows an administrator of a system to grant access to various systemresources based on the needs of the business.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a database system 100 formanaging user permissions based on system events, in accordance withsome implementations. Database system 100 includes a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components which are in communicationwith each other. In the non-limiting example of FIG. 1, database system100 includes at least one enterprise server 104, at least one systemevent database 112, at least one user database 116, and at least onepermission set database 120. In some, but not all implementations,automated permissioning job database 124 includes some or all of systemevent database 112, user database 116, and permission set database 120.Also or alternatively, system event database 112, user database 116, andpermission set database 120 can be arranged as tables in automatedpermissioning job database 124 as part of a shared database. Inaddition, automated permissioning job database 124 can store andmaintain data objects such as customer relationship management (CRM)records of an organization. CRM records include instances of accounts,opportunities, leads, cases, contacts, contracts, campaigns, solutions,quotes, purchase orders, etc. User systems 108 a and 108 b can interactwith database system 100 by sending and receiving data to and from oneor more servers and/or databases of database system 100.

Enterprise server 104 may communicate with other components of databasesystem 100. This communication may be facilitated through a combinationof networks and interfaces. Enterprise server 104 may handle and processdata requests from user systems 108 a and 108 b. Likewise, enterpriseserver 104 may return a response to user systems 108 a and 108 b afterthe data request has been processed. For example, enterprise server 104may retrieve data from one or more databases, combine some or all of thedata from different databases, and send the processed data to usersystem 108 a or 108 b.

Also or alternatively, enterprise server 104 can be configured toprocess system events. In some implementations, system events may betriggered from real-time interactions by a user of user system 108 awith a data object in database system 100. For instance, a user'srequest to export 10,000 data objects and be identified and processed asa system event by enterprise server 104. In other implementations,system events may be triggered by enterprise server 104. In one example,a system event may be in the form of expiration of a timer configured byenterprise server 104.

System event database 112 can be configured to receive, transmit, store,update, and otherwise maintain system event data from enterprise server104. In some implementations, system events can be recognized by anevent listener that is configured by enterprise server 104. A systemevent may be identified based on criteria, which enterprise server 104may store in system event database 112.

User database 116 can include user records such as user profiles formembers of an enterprise system. User records in database 116 can belinked with and/or share data with other databases such as permissionset database 120. In some implementations, a user record includes a userid, a user name, etc. for uniquely identifying a user of database system100. A user profile may include general information, as well as includeor identify permissions granted for that type of profile. Basicpermissions may reflect a level of access for functions that a type ofuser generally performs. For example, a user may have a “sales support”profile, which includes permissions for viewing and escalating a lead.However, a “sales manager” profile can include permissions for creatinga new lead in addition to viewing and escalating a lead. Also oralternatively, multiple users may have the same user profile. Forinstance, four different users can be assigned the profile of “salessupport.”

Permission set database 120 can store and manage sets and subsets ofpermissions. Permission sets may be arranged hierarchically with subsetsof permissions dependent on other sets of permissions. For example, apermission set may include a permission to view and edit contacts. Asubset of that permission set may include a permission that limits thecontact fields (name, phone, etc.) that may be edited. As such, a userassigned that permission set could edit a contact's phone number, butmay only view the contact name. In some implementations, permission setsmay be added to user records from user database 116 in order tocustomize a user's permissions. For example, along with the basicpermissions from a user's profile, a user may have many permissionsadded. As discussed above, multiple users may have the same userprofile, but among these users, they may have different permission sets.For example, two users may be assigned a “sales support” profile, andone user may have a permission set that includes a permission to createa new lead, while the other user does not have that permission set.

User systems 108 a and 108 b may be computing devices capable ofcommunicating via one or more data networks with a server. Examples ofuser systems 108 a and 108 b include a desktop computer or portableelectronic device such as a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a wearabledevice such as Google Glass®, another optical head-mounted display(OHMD) device, a smart watch, etc. Also or alternatively, there may bepermissions specific to the electronic device of user systems 108 a and108 b. In some implementations, when a user successfully logs intodatabase system 100, enterprise server 104 grants a user of user system108 a permissions to interact with various data objects. Permissionsgranted to the user include the permissions from the user profile andthe permission sets assigned to that user. In some implementations,permissions may be granted or removed based on user interactions withdata objects in database system 100.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of an example of a method 200 for managingpermissions of users to access and interact with data objects in adatabase system, in accordance with some implementations. Method 200 andother methods described herein may be implemented using database system100 of FIG. 1, although the implementations of such methods are notlimited to database system 100.

In block 204 of FIG. 2, a server such as enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1implements one or more event listeners to listen for system events. Insome implementations, enterprise server 104 compares data received fromuser system 108 a to system event criteria for designated types ofsystem events stored in system event database 112. In someimplementations, event listeners are configured to process streams ofevent data and may be tracked according to an event listener ID. Also oralternatively, a type of system event may be designated by enterpriseserver 104 according to system event criteria.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a user interface 300 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for selecting an event type, inaccordance with some implementations. In this example, a sequence ofpicklists can be displayed. Beginning with action list 304, subsequentpicklists may be dynamically populated according to selections inprevious picklists. For example, a user may select “Add” from actionlist 304. Based on this selection, event type list 308 may populate alist including “Time,” “Login,” “Export,” Workflow Approval,” “Custom1,” etc.

In some implementations, a user may select “Time” from event type list308, which populates time list 312. By way example, a systemadministrator could select system event criteria to remove permissionsfrom sales representatives during the hours of 1:00 am to 3:00 am whilewebsite maintenance is underway. As such, the system administrator couldselect “Time” from event type list 308 with system event criteria 332“Daily” and a time period of “1:00:00-3:00:00.” In some implementations,a CRON scheduler, discussed further below, can be configured byenterprise server 104 to listen for time criteria including a timeperiod of “1:00:00-3:30:00.”

In some implementations, a user may select “Login” from event type list308, which populates login list 316 and associated system event criteria336. By way of example, a system administrator could select system eventcriteria 336 to remove permissions from users logging in from a“Dangerous Location.” In some implementations, a list of dangerouslocations could include network addresses, geolocations, globalpositioning system (GPS) coordinates, etc. In this example, enterpriseserver 104 can be configured to process login data from users and listenfor login attempts from “Dangerous Locations.”

In some other implementations, a user may select “Export” from eventtype list 308, which populates export list 320. By way of example, asystem administrator could select system event criteria 340 to removepermissions from users attempting to export over “20” of the data object“Accounts.” In some implementations, there may be subsets of systemevent criteria. For example, a system administrator could select systemevent criteria 340 to remove permissions from users attempting to export“20” “All Data Objects” with a further criterion of “10” “Contacts.” Assuch, enterprise server 104 can be configured to listen for a type ofsystem event that occurs when a user exports 20 data objects, some ofwhich may be contacts, as well as, when a user exports 10 contacts.

In still other implementations, a user may select “Workflow Approval”from event type list 308. In some implementations, a selection fromevent type list 308 may generate an input field 324 configured toreceive user input. An identification value corresponding to a “WorkflowId” may be inputted by a user into input field 324, which in someimplementations, creates a system event for the workflow associated withthe identification value. In some implementations, a workflow can be adata object rule that causes a workflow approval action to occur. Forexample, as new cases are assigned to a user, a corresponding task canbe created. In this example, enterprise server 104 could be configuredto listen for this workflow approval based upon the identification valuecorresponding to the workflow approval created.

In still other implementations, a user may select “Custom 1” from eventtype list 308, which populates custom list 328. In some implementations,types of events may be customized to the needs of the organization usingthe enterprise system. By way of example, a system administrator for apharmaceutical company could select system event criteria 344 to addpermissions to users when a pharmaceutical application with the Food andDrug Administration receives “FDA Approval.” In some implementations, apharmaceutical application can be a custom data object. Moreover,enterprise server 104 can be configured to listen for updates andchanges based on the application process at the Food and DrugAdministration.

FIG. 7 shows an example of events being processed to manage permissionsof users, in accordance with some implementations. As system eventsoccur, the system events may be processed and screened by event listener708. In some implementations, event listener 708 can be configured byenterprise server 104 with system event data stored in system eventdatabase 112. Event queue 704 may include designated types of systemevents, as well as, non-designated system events to be ignored andfiltered out before being further processed by system event processingengine 716. In some implementations, event listener 708 may beconfigured to listen for a variety of different system events such asthose examples discussed in detail above. In other implementations,event listener 708 may include additional event listeners, each of whichmay be configured to listen for one or many designated system events.For example, one event listener 708 may be configured to listen for alogin system type while some other event listener 708 may be configuredto listen for an export system event type and a custom system eventtype.

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 208, a designated type of system event isdetermined to occur. As a user interacts with data objects, someinteractions may be interpreted as event criteria by enterprise server104 of FIG. 1. Event listener 708 may evaluate system events, comparingthe system event to designated types of system events stored in systemevent database 112. In some implementations, event listener 708 togetherwith enterprise server 104 may process or “funnel” a system event tosystem event processing engine 716. For example, event listener 708 ofFIG. 7 can be configured to listen for event criteria including a userattempting to export more than 20 data objects. As the user submits arequest to export the 20^(th) data object, a system event is determinedto occur by event listener 708, causing enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1to send determination data to system event processing engine 716. Inother implementations, CRON scheduler 712 may process time criteria inthe form of some measurable unit of time such as a specific time and/ordate, a duration, or fixed interval, etc. For example, after a specifiedtime threshold of 7 days, CRON scheduler 712 may determine that the 7day time threshold was met, allowing system event processing engine 716to process the system event. Also or alternatively, upon thedetermination in block 208, event processing engine 716 may furtherissue instructions to enterprise server 104 to carry out the steps inblock 212 and 216 discussed further below.

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 212, designated users are identified. Insome implementations, users may be identified with user criteriadesignated by enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1. In some implementations,user criteria can identify a specific user, while in otherimplementations user criteria can identify a group of users. Forexample, user criteria for a group of users can include user role, userprofile, user group, user manager, user list, or custom user. In someimplementations, criteria for group of users may be stored in userdatabase 116 of FIG. 1. Also or alternatively, users may be identifiedby enterprise server 104 by performing one or more selection queriesusing a database programming language such as Salesforce Object QueryLanguage (SOQL), Structured Query Language (SQL), etc. For example, FIG.4 shows an example of a user interface 400 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for selecting a user type, in accordancewith some implementations. In FIG. 4, a user may select “Specific User”or “Group of Users” as a type of user from user list 404. In oneexample, when a user selects “Specific User,” user field 408 may begenerated and displayed by enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1. In someimplementations, a user may input a value corresponding to a “User ID,”or “Username” to identify the user. For example, if a systemadministrator wanted permissions added to the user “Juan(username=‘juan@rainbowreaders.com, user id=‘z1x2’),” the systemadministrator could type either “juan@rainbowreaders.com” or “z1x2” intouser field 408.

In another example, a user selects “Group of Users” from user list 404.In some implementations, user criteria for groups can allow dynamicidentification and/or selection of users. In other words, when a systemevent is processed by event processing engine 716 of FIG. 7 and userquery 720 is executed, the pool of users from which users may beidentified could change in the time between when the user criteria wascreated and when user query 720 was executed. For example, a systemadministrator selected “All Users” from user criteria list 412, but theassociated system event may be triggered 6 months later. During thefirst month, 5 users would have been identified based on the “All Users”criteria. However, when the system event was triggered 6 months later,10 new employees had joined the company. Thus, 15 users are identified.Also or alternatively, user criteria can include any other definable oridentifiable criteria associated with a user. This can include all usersaccording to their job role, for example, all users who are“Accountants.” Another definable criterion includes all users accordingto their profile. For example, all users who have the “Guest” profile.Another definable criterion includes all users who are in a group. Insome implementations, the group may be a public group. For example, allusers who belong to the “Book Club” of an organization. Anotherdefinable criterion includes all users who have a manager. For example,all users managed by “Juan.” In addition, another definable criterionincludes all users in a list. For example, enterprise server 104 of FIG.1 may process a list stored on one or may databases, where the listincludes “Juan, Lola, and Frank.” Also or alternatively, a user may beidentified according to a permission that has been granted to him. Forexample, all users with a permission to “Edit Knowledge Articles.”

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 216, permission sets are identified. Insome implementations, permission sets may be identified by enterpriseserver 104 based on a permission set matching permission criteria. Insome implementations, user criteria can identify permissions, while inother implementations permission criteria may identify one or morepermission sets. Also or alternatively, permission sets may beidentified by enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1 through SOQL, SQL, etc.queries.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a user interface 500 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device for selecting profiles or permissionsets which relate to the permission(s) an administrator may grant orremove from a user, in accordance with some implementations. In FIG. 5,a user may select “Profile” or “Permission Sets” from permission list504. In one example, a system administrator may select “Profile” frompermission list 504, which can allow enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1 toidentify profile permissions matching permission criteria such as avalue for the “Profile.” Expanding on the example above, a systemadministrator may schedule a change of Juan's profile and correspondingpermissions on Jan. 2, 2016. As such, a system administrator may select“Change (Profile)” from action list 304 of FIG. 3 and input “Jan. 2,2016” for system event criteria 332 of time list 312. Next, the systemadministrator types “Juan” into user field 408 of FIG. 4 and selects“Profile” from permission list 504. In some implementations, permissioncriteria may allow dynamic selection of permission sets. Returning toFIG. 7, similar to user query 720, permission set query 724 maydynamically identify and/or select permission sets according topermission criteria according to the context of when a system event isprocessed by event processing engine 716.

In another example, enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1 may identifypermissions temporarily granted for specific purpose such as permissionsgranted automatically on Mar. 1, 2015 for tax season. In this example, asystem administrator may select “Assigned to User” from permission setcriteria list 508 of FIG. 5. The system administrator may enter a value,but also or alternatively, enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1 may designatea user after the system event is processed. In some implementations,permission criteria may include subsets of permission criteria. As such,a system administrator may enter a value for subset permission criteria512 as “After Date—Feb. 28, 2015.” In addition to permission setcriteria discussed earlier, other non-limiting examples of permissioncriteria include: all permission sets having a name that starts with orends with a predefined term; all permission sets that have a particularpermission; all permission sets associated with a particular license orall permission sets without a license; all permission sets created by aspecific user; all permission sets created on or after a particulardate; all permission sets assigned to a group of users; permission setsbased on when they were assigned to a specific user; etc.

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 220, permissions of users are added,removed, and/or updated. In some implementations, enterprise server 104of FIG. 1 may automatically add or remove permissions from users. Forexample, in FIG. 7, after a system event is processed by eventprocessing engine 716, user query 720 and permission set query 724 cancause permission of users to be added, updated, and/or removed accordingto their combination of processing instructions and action 728. In someimplementations, action 728 is configured according to event processingengine 716 after receiving a system event. For example, a system eventcan include a selection from action list 304 of FIG. 3, which maycorrespond to action 728 of FIG. 7. In another example, on Apr. 15,2015, a system event designated for that day may be processed.Enterprise server of FIG. 1 may execute SOQL commands to select userswith the role “Accountant,” select their permission sets assigned “AfterDate—Feb. 28, 2015,” and remove permission sets from the users fittingthe criteria.

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 224, in some but not all implementations,it is determined that permissions were successfully changed. In someimplementations, the determination includes whether permissions wereadded, updated, and/or removed. Also or alternatively, the determinationmay return data to be processed by enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1 ondetails of a successful or unsuccessful change to permissions. In someimplementations, whether permissions were modified successfully orunsuccessfully can be recorded in one or more log files. In otherimplementations, this determination may generate an additional systemevent to be processed by enterprise server 104 of FIG. 1.

Returning to FIG. 2, in block 228, in some but not all implementations,records are generated based on the determination in block 224. Forexample, records 732 of FIG. 7, which may contain some or all of thedata reflected in log files, which can include details of the changesmade to permissions of a user. Also or alternatively, existing recordsstored in automated permissioning job database 124 may be updated toreflect the determination in block 224.

In block 232, records generated in block 228 could be displayed in auser interface such as user interface 600 of FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows apermission monitoring window 600 in the form of a GUI as displayed on acomputing device for reviewing automated permissioning jobs, inaccordance with some implementations. In FIG. 6, job records 604 a, 604b, 604 c, 604 d, and 604 e can be graphical representations of automatedpermissioning jobs that include some or all of the data necessary toimplement some or all of blocks 204-220. Also or alternatively, records732 of FIG. 7 may correspond to job records 604 a, 604 b, 604 c, 604 d,and 604 e. A user may navigate to permission monitoring window 600 toview details of permissions to be added, removed, or updated. Inaddition, a user may navigate between pending tab 608, executed tab 612,and failed tab 616 to view the details generated in block 228. Forexample, a system administrator may navigate to monitoring window 600 toascertain the status of current and past automated permission jobs.

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described below for implementingdatabase systems and enterprise level social and business informationnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system. Forinstance, a user of a database system may not easily know when importantinformation in the database has changed, e.g., about a project orclient. Such implementations can provide feed tracked updates about suchchanges and other events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record in the form of a CRMrecord, e.g., an opportunity such as a possible sale of 1000 computers.Once the record update has been made, a feed tracked update about therecord update can then automatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, toanyone subscribing to the opportunity or to the user. Thus, the userdoes not need to contact a manager regarding the change in theopportunity, since the feed tracked update about the update is sent viaa feed to the manager's feed page or other page.

FIG. 8A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 8A (and in more detail inFIG. 8B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.8A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creation, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 8A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation,storage of the applications into one or more database objects andexecuting of the applications in a virtual machine in the process spaceof the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 8A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 8B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 8A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 8B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 8B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 8B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 8B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.8B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 8A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 8B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 8A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 9A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.9A and 9B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 9A and9B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 9B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 9A and9B.

FIG. 9B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented as part of or in conjunction with a social networkingdatabase system, also referred to herein as a social networking systemor as a social network. Social networking systems have become a popularway to facilitate communication among people, any of whom can berecognized as users of a social networking system. One example of asocial networking system is Chatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc.of San Francisco, Calif. salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of socialnetworking services, CRM services and other database managementservices, any of which can be accessed and used in conjunction with thetechniques disclosed herein in some implementations. These variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud. While the disclosedimplementations are often described with reference to Chatter®, thoseskilled in the art should understand that the disclosed techniques areneither limited to Chatter® nor to any other services and systemsprovided by salesforce.com, inc. and can be implemented in the contextof various other database systems and/or social networking systems suchas Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Twitter®, Google+®, Yammer® and Jive® by way ofexample only.

Some social networking systems can be implemented in various settings,including organizations. For instance, a social networking system can beimplemented to connect users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, Chatter® can be used by employee users in a division of abusiness organization to share data, communicate, and collaborate witheach other for various social purposes often involving the business ofthe organization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail herein.

In some social networking systems, users can access one or more socialnetwork feeds, which include information updates presented as items orentries in the feed. Such a feed item can include a single informationupdate or a collection of individual information updates. A feed itemcan include various types of data including character-based data, audiodata, image data and/or video data. A social network feed can bedisplayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device suchas the display of a computing device as described herein. Theinformation updates can include various social network data from varioussources and can be stored in an on-demand database service environment.In some implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, a social networking system may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of CRM records such as cases, accounts,or opportunities, in addition to following individual users and groupsof users. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as describedin greater detail herein, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord when the user is subscribed to the record. Updates to the record,also referred to herein as changes to the record, are one type ofinformation update that can occur and be noted on a social network feedsuch as a record feed or a news feed of a user subscribed to the record.Examples of record updates include field changes in the record, updatesto the status of a record, as well as the creation of the record itself.Some records are publicly accessible, such that any user can follow therecord, while other records are private, for which appropriate securityclearance/permissions are a prerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be social media messages submitted by a user or canotherwise be generated in response to user actions or in response toevents. Examples of social media messages include: posts, comments,indications of a user's personal preferences such as “likes” and“dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploaded files, anduser-submitted hyperlinks to social network data or other network datasuch as various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts caninclude alpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such aswords, phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/orsymbols. Comments generally refer to responses to posts or to otherinformation updates, such as words, phrases, statements, answers,questions, and reactionary emotional expressions and/or symbols.Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, or attached to a postor comment. For example, a post can include textual statements incombination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like or dislike canbe submitted in response to a particular post or comment. Examples ofuploaded files include presentations, documents, multimedia files, andthe like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed. A user'sprofile feed is also referred to herein as the user's “wall,” which isone example of a social network feed displayed on the user's profilepage.

In some implementations, a social network feed may be specific to agroup of users of a social networking system. For instance, a group ofusers may publish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post tothis group feed in accordance with a permissions configuration for thefeed and the group. Information updates in a group context can alsoinclude changes to group status information.

In some implementations, when data such as posts or comments input fromone or more users are submitted to a social network feed for aparticular user, group, object, or other construct within a socialnetworking system, an email notification or other type of networkcommunication may be transmitted to all users following the user, group,or object in addition to the inclusion of the data as a feed item in oneor more feeds, such as a user's profile feed, a news feed, or a recordfeed. In some social networking systems, the occurrence of such anotification is limited to the first instance of a published input,which may form part of a larger conversation. For instance, anotification may be transmitted for an initial post, but not forcomments on the post. In some other implementations, a separatenotification is transmitted for each such information update.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers.

An example of a “user profile” or “user's profile” is a database objector set of objects configured to store and maintain data about a givenuser of a social networking system and/or database system. The data caninclude general information, such as name, title, phone number, a photo,a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing what theuser is currently doing. As mentioned herein, the data can includesocial media messages created by other users. Where there are multipletenants, a user is typically associated with a particular tenant. Forexample, a user could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenantof the database system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get. In one implementation of amulti-tenant database system, each record for the tenants has a uniqueidentifier stored in a common table. A record has data fields that aredefined by the structure of the object (e.g., fields of certain datatypes and purposes). A record can also have custom fields defined by auser. A field can be another record or include links thereto, therebyproviding a parent-child relationship between the records.

The terms “social network feed” and “feed” are used interchangeablyherein and generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed itemsor entries with various types of information and data. Such feed itemscan be stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., asrows in the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevantinformation to be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feeditem” (or feed element) generally refers to an item of information,which can be presented in the feed such as a post submitted by a user.Feed items of information about a user can be presented in a user'sprofile feed of the database, while feed items of information about arecord can be presented in a record feed in the database, by way ofexample. A profile feed and a record feed are examples of differenttypes of social network feeds. A second user following a first user anda record can receive the feed items associated with the first user andthe record for display in the second user's news feed, which is anothertype of social network feed. In some implementations, the feed itemsfrom any number of followed users and records can be combined into asingle social network feed of a particular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a social media message, such as auser-generated post of text data, and a feed tracked update to a recordor profile, such as a change to a field of the record. Feed trackedupdates are described in greater detail herein. A feed can be acombination of social media messages and feed tracked updates. Socialmedia messages include text created by a user, and may include otherdata as well. Examples of social media messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Social media messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a GUI, for instance, on the user'sprofile page, as part of the user's profile feed. In contrast to a post,a user status update changes a status of a user and can be made by thatuser or an administrator. A record can also have a status, the update ofwhich can be provided by an owner of the record or other users havingsuitable write access permissions to the record. The owner can be asingle user, multiple users, or a group.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Social media messages and other types of feedupdates can be stored as a field or child object of the record. Forexample, the feed can be stored as a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes one or more feed items about anyuser in the group. In some implementations, the group feed also includesinformation updates and other feed items that are about the group as awhole, the group's purpose, the group's description, and group recordsand other objects stored in association with the group. Threads ofinformation updates including group record updates and social mediamessages, such as posts, comments, likes, etc., can define groupconversations and change over time.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database. Such feed items caninclude feed tracked updates about changes to the record and posts madeby users about the record. An entity feed can be composed of any type offeed item. Such a feed can be displayed on a page such as a web pageassociated with the record, e.g., a home page of the record. As usedherein, a “profile feed” or “user's profile feed” generally refers to afeed of feed items about a particular user. In one example, the feeditems for a profile feed include posts and comments that other usersmake about or send to the particular user, and status updates made bythe particular user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another example, feed items in aprofile feed could include posts made by the particular user and feedtracked updates initiated based on actions of the particular user.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (“ROM”) devices andrandom access memory (“RAM”) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A database system configurable to: maintain, by aserver of the database system, at least one database storing a pluralityof permission sets for a plurality of users as data objects; listen, bya server of the database system, for system events of designated typesin relation to designated types of users, the designated types of systemevents being customizable using system event criteria, the designatedtypes of users being customizable using user criteria; determine, by aserver of the database system, that a system event of at least one ofthe designated types of system events has occurred based on at least onesystem event criterion; identify, by a server of the database system,based on the system event determined to have occurred and based on atleast one of the designated types of users, at least one user asmatching at least one user criterion; identify, by a server of thedatabase system, based on the system event determined to have occurred,at least one of the permission sets as matching at least one permissioncriterion; and add, update, or remove, by a server of the databasesystem, at least one permission of the identified at least one userbased on the identified at least one permission set.
 2. The databasesystem of claim 1, the database system further configurable to:determine, by a server of the database system, that the at least onepermission of the identified at least one user was successfully orunsuccessfully added, updated, or removed.
 3. The database system ofclaim 2, the database system further configurable to: generate, by aserver of the database system, a record based on the determinedsuccessfully or unsuccessfully added, updated, or removed at least onepermission of the identified at least one user, the record having datacorresponding to changes made to permissions of users; and causedisplay, in a user interface on a display of a user device, of therecord data.
 4. The database system of claim 1, the database systemfurther configurable to: determine, by a server of the database system,using a scheduler, that one of the designated types of system events hasoccurred based on at least one time criterion.
 5. The database system ofclaim 1, the database system further configurable to: receive, by aserver of the database system, user input identifying at least one ofthe designated system event types and identifying at least one of thedesignated user types.
 6. The database system of claim 5, the databasesystem further configurable to: generate, by a server of the databasesystem, an event listener based on the user-identified system eventtype, the user-identified user type, and a user-identified permissionset, the event listener configured to provide the listening for systemevents, the event listener having an event listener ID; and causing, bya server of the database system, performance of the event listener. 7.The database system of claim 1, wherein the designated system eventtypes comprise at least one of: a login system event, an export systemevent, a workflow approval system event, or a custom system event. 8.The database system of claim 1, wherein the designated user typescomprise at least one of: a user role, a user profile, a user group, auser manager, a user list, or a custom user.
 9. A method comprising:maintaining, by a server of a database system, at least one databasestoring a plurality of permission sets for a plurality of users as dataobjects; listening, by a server of the database system, for systemevents of designated types in relation to designated types of users, thedesignated types of system events being customizable using system eventcriteria, the designated types of users being customizable using usercriteria; determining, by a server of the database system, that a systemevent of at least one of the designated types of system events hasoccurred based on at least one system event criterion; identifying, by aserver of the database system, based on the system event determined tohave occurred and based on at least one of the designated types ofusers, at least one user as matching at least one user criterion;identifying, by a server of the database system, based on the systemevent determined to have occurred, at least one of the permission setsas matching at least one permission criterion; and adding, updating, orremoving, by a server of the database system, at least one permission ofthe identified at least one user based on the identified at least onepermission set.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:determining, by a server of the database system, that the at least onepermission of the identified at least one user was successfully orunsuccessfully added, updated, or removed.
 11. The method of claim 10,further comprising: generating, by a server of the database system, arecord based on the determined successfully or unsuccessfully added,updated, or removed at least one permission of the identified at leastone user, the record having data corresponding to changes made topermissions of users; and causing display, in a user interface on adisplay of a user device, of the record data.
 12. The method of claim 9,further comprising: determining, by a server of the database system,using a scheduler, that one of the designated types of system events hasoccurred based on at least one time criterion.
 13. The method of claim9, further comprising: receiving, by a server of the database system,user input identifying at least one of the designated system event typesand identifying at least one of the designated user types.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising: generating, by a server of thedatabase system, an event listener based on the user-identified systemevent type, the user-identified user type, and a user-identifiedpermission set, the event listener configured to provide the listeningfor system events, the event listener having an event listener ID; andcausing, by a server of the database system, performance of the eventlistener.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the designated system eventtypes comprise at least one of: a login system event, an export systemevent, a workflow approval system event, or a custom system event.
 16. Acomputer program product comprising computer-readable program code to beexecuted by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, the program code including instructionsconfigured to cause: maintaining, by a server of a database system, atleast one database storing a plurality of permission sets for aplurality of users as data objects; listening, by a server of thedatabase system, for system events of designated types in relation todesignated types of users, the designated types of system events beingcustomizable using system event criteria, the designated types of usersbeing customizable using user criteria; determining, by a server of thedatabase system, that a system event of at least one of the designatedtypes of system events has occurred based on at least one system eventcriterion; identifying, by a server of the database system, based on thesystem event determined to have occurred and based on at least one ofthe designated types of users, at least one user as matching at leastone user criterion; identifying, by a server of the database system,based on the system event determined to have occurred, at least one ofthe permission sets as matching at least one permission criterion; andadding, updating, or removing, by a server of the database system, atleast one permission of the identified at least one user based on theidentified at least one permission set.
 17. The computer program productof claim 16, the instructions further configured to cause: determining,by a server of the database system, that the at least one permission ofthe identified at least one user was successfully or unsuccessfullyadded, updated, or removed.
 18. The computer program product of claim17, the instructions further configured to cause: generating, by aserver of the database system, a record based on the determinedsuccessfully or unsuccessfully added, updated, or removed at least onepermission of the identified at least one user, the record having datacorresponding to changes made to permissions of users; and causingdisplay, in a user interface on a display of a user device, of therecord data.
 19. The computer program product of claim 16, theinstructions further configured to cause: determining, by a server ofthe database system, using a scheduler, that one of the designated typesof system events has occurred based on at least one time criterion. 20.The computer program product of claim 16, the instructions furtherconfigured to cause: receiving, by a server of the database system, userinput identifying at least one of the designated system event types andidentifying at least one of the designated user types; generating, by aserver of the database system, an event listener based on theuser-identified system event type, the user-identified user type, and auser-identified permission set, the event listener configured to providethe listening for system events, the event listener having an eventlistener ID; and causing, by a server of the database system,performance of the event listener.